Computer networks, such as the Internet, enable transmission and reception of a vast array of information. In recent years, for example, some commercial retail stores have attempted to make product information available to customers over the Internet. It is becoming increasingly popular for information providers to provide mechanisms by which consumers can compare such product information across multiple manufacturers and retailers. For simplicity, manufacturers, retailers, and others that sell products to customers are interchangeably referred to herein as “merchants.” For example, Internet search/shopping sites allow customers to compare pricing information for products across multiple merchants.
Typically, such comparisons are based on information provided in data feeds from the merchants to the information providers. This data should be of good quality to be useful. However, merchants are not uniform in their description of brands. In addition to simple variations such as “LEXAR” versus “LEXAR MEDIA” and “PILOT” versus “PILOT PEN of AMERICA,” there are much more difficult variations such as “BAND-AID” versus JOHNSON & JOHNSON″ for which brand name string similarity is not useful. In addition, merchants are not uniform in their use of product identifiers. The product identifiers can include global trade item numbers (“GTINs”), such as international standard book numbers (“ISBNs”) universal product codes (“UPCs”), and European article numbers (“EANs”), brand name and model number combinations, and other standard identifiers. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a mechanism for determining whether two product offers relate to the same product, which does not rely solely on matching brand names or matching product identifiers.